Is Stephen Miller America's Real Commander-in-Chief?

Does Donald Trump even fully understand and appreciate the extent to which his administration is ignoring Supreme Court decisions?

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

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President Miller?

Last week, Time published an extensive interview with President Donald Trump marking his first 100 days in office. The passage below is one of the most illuminating — and troubling (italics added).

Are you still committed to complying with all Supreme Court orders?

Sure, I believe in the court system.

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that you have to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia. You haven't done so. Aren’t you disobeying the Supreme Court?

Well, that’s not what my people told me—they didn’t say it was, they said it was—the nine to nothing was something entirely different.

Let me quote from the ruling. “The order properly requires the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador.” Are you facilitating a release?

I leave that to my lawyers. I give them no instructions. They feel that the order said something very much different from what you're saying. But I leave that to my lawyers. If they want—and that would be the Attorney General of the United States and the people that represent the country. I don't make that decision.

Have you asked President Bukele to return him?

I haven’t, uh, he said he wouldn’t.

Did you ask him?

But I haven’t asked him positively, but he said he wouldn’t.

But if you haven't asked him, then how are you facilitating his release?

Well, because I haven't been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you.

One of the general assumptions about the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case is that Trump is purposely thumbing his nose at the Supreme Court by refusing to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. However, Trump’s statement to Time suggests something a bit more concerning: he is following the lead of his “people” and that he has been led to believe that the 9-0 Supreme Court decision, which upheld a District Court order demanding that the US bring Abrego Garcia home from El Salvador, actually went in his favor.

How is it possible that Trump believes a SCOTUS decision that clearly rejected his administration’s argument was actually in his favor?

Would You Answer That Question?

Trump’s bizarre statement above reminded me of his Oval Office meeting with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele two weeks ago, during which a revelatory exchange took place between Trump and one of his top aides, Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller.

A reporter queried Trump as to whether he planned to ask Bukele to “help return the man who your administration says was mistakenly deported.” Trump seemed confused by the question and asked Attorney General Pam Bondi and then Miller to respond.

Miller is undoubtedly the most hardline member of Trump’s team on immigration, and the worst excesses of the Trump administration, from family separation to illegal deportations and the use of the Alien Enemies Act, have Miller’s fingerprints all over them. Back in 2020, he reportedly said at a staff meeting focused on immigration policy, “This is all I care about. I don’t have a family. I don’t have anything else. This is my life.” Miller has since gotten married and had a child, but his obsession with deporting undocumented immigrants remains as strong as ever.

After Trump turned to Miller, he berated reporters (which is not unusual behavior for him) and insisted that Abrego Garcia “was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador.” According to Miller, “This was the right person sent to the right place.”

Miller’s statement is blatantly false and is contradicted by the statements of three separate members of the Trump administration, each of whom have said in court documents that Abrego Garcia was “mistakenly” sent to El Salvador (this includes D. John Sauer, the solicitor general; Robert Cerna, ICE’s director for enforcement and removal operations; and a Justice Department lawyer later fired for his truth-telling). Indeed, as the Supreme Court noted in its order on the Abrego Garcia case, “The United States represents that the removal to El Salvador was the result of an ‘administrative error.’”

Miller then offered a peculiar characterization of the Supreme Court's decision.

“A district court judge tried to tell the administration that they had to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here. That issue was raised with the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court said the District court order was unlawful and its main components were reversed 9-0 unanimously stating clearly that neither (the) Secretary of State nor the President could be compelled by anybody to forcibly retrieve a citizen of El Salvador from El Salvador, who again is a member of MS-13.

Trump then interrupts Miller and asks, “What was the ruling in the Supreme Court, Steve? Was it nine to nothing?”

Miller responds, “Yes. It was a 9-0” and Trump asks, “In our favor?” and Miller says, “In our favor against the District Court ruling saying that no district court has the power to compel the foreign policy function of the United States …. the ruling solely stated that if this individual, at El Salvador's sole discretion, was sent back to our country, that we could deport him a second time.”

Miller’s description of the Supreme Court decision is almost Orwellian in its manifest dishonesty. What he says above is literally the exact opposite of what the High Court ordered.

Here is the relevant passage from Noem v. Abrego Garcia.

Referencing the district court’s order, the Court decision says “the order properly requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

Now, it’s true that the Supreme Court’s order says that “The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.” But Miller’s claim that SCOTUS ruled that “no district court has the power to compel the foreign policy function of the United States” is simply made up. So too is his claim that “the Supreme Court said the District court order was unlawful.” The Supreme Court stated that the District Court order must show deference to the Executive Branch, not grant it carte blanche to act as it pleases — and nowhere in the order does the High Court say that the District Court order was unlawful.

The Dishonest Leading The Dumb

I bring all this up because it appears that Trump’s statement to Time that the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision was in his favor is entirely consistent with Miller’s dishonest characterization in the Oval Office earlier this month.

Indeed, when Trump asked Bondi to comment on the SCOTUS decision, she obfuscates by claiming that Abrego Garcia was “illegally in our country,” and that in 2019, two courts said he was “a member of MS-13.” This is kinda sorta true, but omits essential facts (Abrego Garcia has legal status to stay in the country, and the Department of Justice was unable to provide any evidence, in recent court hearings, that he was a member of MS-13). However, Bondi put the decision on his return in El Salvador’s court: “If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning we would provide a plane.” She did not completely mischaracterize the SCOTUS decision. Miller did that, and in the Time interview, Trump regurgitates his aide’s argument.

All of this leads to a rather disturbing conclusion — Trump is too blinkered and, frankly, cognitively limited to understand what the Court’s decision actually said. Instead, he’s relying on aides like Miller to tell him, and they are feeding him lies to further their policy agenda. So Trump isn’t directly thumbing his nose at the Supreme Court. Miller is the one defying the court’s orders, and he’s using Trump’s malleability and incuriosity to do it.

Keep in mind, Miller has been a hardliner on immigration far longer than Trump, and he has a long track record of association with white supremacist ideology. During Trump’s first term, he was considered the driving force behind the president’s hardline immigration policy.

But the combination of the Time interview with Miller’s public (and blatantly false) description of the Abrego Garcia decision suggests that Trump is doing the bidding of his hardline aides, and specifically Miller — and not the other way around.

In fact, at one point in the Time interview, Trump says of Abrego Garcia, “bringing him back and retrying him wouldn't bother me.” That is the opposite of the position taken by his administration.

And when asked again, “You could fix this simply by bringing him back and going through the legal process,” Trump interrupts and says, “But I leave that decision to the lawyers. At this moment, they just don’t want to do that. They say we’re in total compliance with the Supreme Court.” (italics added) Again, Trump is regurgitating Miller’s false argument.

There’s something else important here as well.

Trump is asked by Time if he has requested that Bukele return Abergo Garcia to the United States, and the president again seems confused. He says, “Well, because I haven't been asked to ask him by my attorneys. Nobody asked me to ask him that question, except you.” Not only does Trump’s statement suggest that he is overwhelmingly and disturbingly reliant on his aides, but that no one around him has told him what he must do to comply with the Supreme Court decision.

It is worth noting that Trump repeatedly tells Time he is committed to adhering to all Supreme Court orders, and, by and large, his administration has done just that. He says in the interview, “I'm not defying the Supreme Court. I never defy the Supreme Court. I wouldn't do that. I'm a big believer in the Supreme Court, and have a lot of respect for the Justices.” When asked if he is “committed to complying with lower courts?” Trump responds, “Sure. All courts”

But in the Abrego Garcia case, Trump is directly defying the courts. His response suggests that he’s unaware that the Supreme Court ruled against him and that it ordered his administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release.

This situation raises fundamental questions about how much control Trump has in the White House — and the extent to which he understands what’s happening around him. Trump isn’t just saying things that are clearly incorrect (which he does often). Trump’s mischaracterization of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Abrego Garcia case suggests that he is so out of touch and reliant on his aides (or manipulated by them) that he doesn’t even know he’s breaking the law.

What’s Going On

• My latest for MSNBC on how the Republican Party is an ideologically conservative political party in name only.

• An Irish woman with a Green Card, who has been living in the US for 30 years, has been detained by ICE.

• The American electorate is not happy with Donald Trump.

• In case you missed it, I had a great chat with Julian Zelizer on Friday.

Musical Interlude

I had a fantastic weekend of record buying … here are a few things I picked up.

(This Politicians’ record is stupendous.)